March 22 World Water Day

March 22, 2012 Author: Wayne Pumps

World Water Day is observed on March 22 every year.  This day is held to bring attention to the importance of the earth’s most precious natural resource.  Many take freshwater for granted but many cannot.  Think about how many things we do in our daily life that revolves around water, not just water for drinking but cleaning, food production, transportation, power generation, worship, recreation, fire fighting, the list goes on.  Twenty years ago World Water Day was proposed at the United Nation Conference on Environment and Development as they thought about the importance of water.  Below are some interesting facts you may not know as you keep water in mind today.

884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people.5


3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease.11


The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.1


People living in the slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city.1


An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day. 1

Resource Links

Look for more facts at www.water.org : Water Resource Links.

References

  1. 2006 United Nations Human Development Report.
  2. Number estimated from statistics in the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report.
  3. Asian Development Bank web site. 2009.
  4. The Discovery Channel web site. 2009.
  5. UNICEF/WHO. 2008. Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: Special Focus on Sanitation.
  6. UN. 2007. International Year of Sanitation Global Launch
  7. UN Water. 2008. Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief.
  8. UN Water. 2008. Tackling a Global Crisis: International Year of Sanitation 2008
  9. Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). 2008. A Guide to Investigating One of the Biggest Scandals of the Last 50 Years.
  10. Rajesh Shah of Blue Planet Run Foundation.
  11. World Health Organization. 2008. Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health.
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